Deerfoot Eagles Soccer Club and North Central United Expanding Relationship

Deerfoot Eagles Soccer Club and North Central United Expanding Relationship

Deerfoot Soccer Association and NCU have had a long standing cooperative working relationship. Over the years, many times extra players from either club have been sent to the other club to help fill out rosters and provide kids the opportunity to play soccer. This last spring, our two clubs entered into a new phase of cooperation: we began to field several teams jointly (some were NCU and some were Deerfoot) but what was different is that we custom built teams to create opportunities for our players to play with children of similar skills and experience. As both clubs are relatively small, in the past, it has often meant that we formed teams where players of tier 1, tier 2 or tier 3 were grouped with players that were Tier 4 or 5. This often led to frustrations for our players and our parents.

Deerfoot and NCU decided that if we cooperated, we could build teams where the players would be grouped by experience and not just age. The results were fantastic! Our clubs enjoyed excellent success and the kids really liked the challenge of playing against and with players of similar skill. Players all received more playing time and the coaches also found it great that they could challenge a team at practice with drills that were suited to all the players and not just a portion. As a result of this success, our clubs have felt it is time to expand this program and to try and build even more teams together this fall. We will be conducting joint evaluations and looking to really improve upon the things we have developed so far and to field as many teams as we can at each age level.

This indoor season is shaping up to be a fantastic growth opportunity for Deerfoot. Our club grew by over 50% this past season and with our new found commitment with NCU, we expect to see even more exciting growth opportunities and more success on the pitch. I want to thank all the coaches and parents for making this trial such a great success and I look forward to seeing you all in September on the pitch!